The opening of an exhibition dedicated to violence against women, this Friday, December 15 at the Consulate General of Greece in New York, triggered a lively controversy within the Greek Parliament. This exhibition was part of a cultural initiative led by the Consulate General, the “Carte Blanche Project”, which aims to promote the work of Greek and Greek-American artists.
Among the works of expatriate artist Georgia Lale, one in particular caused a scandal, as noted by the Greek information site In.gr, cited and translated by Courrier international. This is called “Neighborhood Guilt”: it is a Greek flag, entirely pink, woven from different sheets that belonged to 22 women whose murder is considered by the artist to be “feminicide”. These sheets were sent to him by relatives of each of the victims, and another work by the artist shows the names of each of these women next to the date of their assassination and the name of the neighborhood in which they were murdered – the name of the work literally means “the guilt of the neighborhood”.
These sheets represent, according to Georgia Lale, “pieces of pain for those who loved these 22 women and who donated them to send a message. […] Pieces of sheets that scream that these 22 women were not the last victims. Pieces of sheets that scream 22 times ‘Why?’ Pieces of sheets from 22 women screaming ‘Help!’ and which no one heard.” Greece, reports the In.gr website, is the country in Europe which in 2022 experienced the greatest increase in the number of domestic murders.
But the presentation of an entirely pink Greek flag was perceived by part of the Greek-American community as an offense to a national emblem. Thus, the weekly news magazine of the Greek community in the United States, the National Herald, reported on its website numerous criticisms from its readers, who felt that “we do not play with the national flag in the buildings of an institution”.
Responding to these criticisms, the Greek consul in New York, Konstantinos Constantinou, first defended the artist and his work, reassuring his compatriots in exile by recalling that “the only flag that flies over the consulate general is the blue flag. and white”, and adding that this flag “is the most sacred symbol that the Greeks have and that there is no other”. According to him, the exhibited work cannot therefore be considered as an alternative flag, it is only a work of art. The consul finally took up the argument put forward by the artist herself to defend herself: it is because the symbol of the national flag is very strong, that the power of her work, put at the service of the cause feminist, is so effective.
But the controversy, relayed by a deputy from the far-right Victoire party, ultimately got the better of the consul’s determination. Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis requested that the work be removed from the exhibition.
The Greek flag was first adopted in its current form in 1822, during the war of independence which separated the Greek nation from the Ottoman Empire. It uses on its bands the colors of the coat of arms of the dynasties of Macedonia and Paleologos. The symbolism of the nine stripes recalls the nine syllables of the war cry of the separatists, “Eleftheria i Thanatos” (“freedom or death”). The white cross on a blue background is also anchored in the history of Greek independence: in 1807, the superior of a Greek monastery administered an oath on this cross to General Koloktronis, who would become the hero of the War of Independence .
